after plans to suspend fighting for a ‘humanitarian pause‘ failed on the first day. the un says it hasn't been able to deliver any aid to the syrian suburb because of fighting. both sides have blamed each other for the failure of the ceasefire. president trump's son—in—law and senior adviser, jared kushner, has had his white house security clearance downgraded. he now won't have access to many sensitive documents. and this video is trending on bbc.com. in an article for vanity fair, monica lewinsky, the former white house intern who had an affair with former president bill clinton, has said his relationship with her constituted a ‘gross abuse of power‘. that‘s all from me for now, stay with bbc news. and the top story here in the uk. snow and freezing temperatures have caused major disruption across much of the uk, with forecasters warning that there‘s worse to come.

hundreds of schools were closed. now on bbc news, all the latest business news live from singapore. asian stock markets retreat after nude fed chief shows a more hawkish sta nce nude fed chief shows a more hawkish stance on inflation rates —— new fed chief. these cards still contained the defective toccata airbags. good morning, asia, and hello world, glad you could join us for this midweek edition of asian business report. i‘m rico hizon, we start off with jerome powell swearing in on the 5th of february, but —— but investors have not heard much from this newly minted fed chief until today. his testimony earlier from the house

services committee has increased pressure that the fed could add a... this has caused share markets to fall. the s&p 500s suffering its biggest drop in three weeks, the nasdaq and dowjones falling by 1.296. nasdaq and dowjones falling by i.2%. as fraser, the likes of asia into negative territory, together all ordinaries in the index. earlier, our business reporter explained by mak —— why mr powell‘s testimony is making investors nervous. in december 2017 meeting, what the fed had signaled was that in 2018, we would see three interest rate rises, and perhaps two in 2019. whatjerome powell seemed rate rises, and perhaps two in 2019. what jerome powell seemed to rate rises, and perhaps two in 2019. whatjerome powell seemed to have done is left the door open, or at least that is the way investors are interpreting it, he seems to have left the door open for a potential fourth rate rise, or even more rate

rises, because what he has essentially said is that the federal reserve will take into consideration all the information they had since december. what has changed since december? the very first thing is the tax reform bill in place that will lead to lots of corporate savings, some of those savings, a handful of companies have said they gave bonuses to their employees, a few also talk about wages increasing. we have also seen economic data come out here in the us, which suggests that wage growth is faster than expected. so what he has said is we will look at all of this to make our decisions. the australian government is announcing a compulsory recall of more than 2 million vehicles fitted with the defective takata airbags. it is one of the country‘s biggest consumer recalls and it comes after at least 20 deaths in —— and 200 injuries reported worldwide. paul griffiths told me earlier that the federal government is taking this recall very seriously. there has been

concern about these airbags for a decade now globally, it has been a huge issue in the us, and here in australia there was already a volu nta ry australia there was already a voluntary recall, but the government announced today it is simply not happy, that has not been effective enough. so what is being up demanded thatis enough. so what is being up demanded that is a compulsory recall that goes across a huge range of vehicles, toyota, ford, picked popular brands here in australia, volkswagen and bmw, they will have to bear the cost of this new recall thatis to bear the cost of this new recall that is estimated to cover more than 2 million cars on the roads in australia. there has already been controversy in america and australia about the recall process, with some manufacturers admitting they had changed the old faulty airbags for new faulty airbags. it is a fault occu i’s over new faulty airbags. it is a fault occurs over time, the argument was they would be safe to make do with a replacement while something he was found, but the australian government

is very unhappy with this and demanded that completely different airbags are used. netflix looks set to foran airbags are used. netflix looks set to for an additional offering in the us, the streaming service ige is currently owned by that night —— chinese search engine. this crossover now to my colleague and business reporter, timothy mcnaught —— timothy mcdonald. this will give them the financial muscle to expand them the financial muscle to expand the footprint of a ige in the mainland. that is the idea, interestingly, they have no intention of selling off the company, it is simply raising a bit of capital for it. given he has put something like $2 billion into content on the platform, hopefully it will get a bit of a return on investment. interestingly, ige has a user base of about 50 million people, which makes it about half the size of netflix, in addition to that, it has a bit of protection

given that it is the chinese market, so [10 given that it is the chinese market, so no real competition from avenues like netflix and amazon prime. but it is following this following a fairly familiararc like it is following this following a fairly familiar arc like tech companies, it's revenues and expand her—— companies, it's revenues and expand her —— user base are expanding quite rapidly. so we will see this move listed on the nasdaq exchange if it will help it out. thank you so much for that update. timothy macdonald in the newsroom. in other business news making headlines, us cable giant comcast has offered $31 billion for europe‘s biggest cable provider, sky. comcast, which owns nbc and universal pictures, has made an all cash offer that is significantly higher than urban earlier bid by rupert murdoch‘s 21st century fox. the new bid could mean changes to disney‘s buyout of fox,

which also included an offer to take over skype. shares of comcast fault —— fell nearly 6% in us trade. the us department is slapping steep ta riffs us department is slapping steep tariffs and as much as 160% —— io6% on chinese imports of a limit —— aluminum foil. the claims its products are being dumped in the us market at below price, and that chinese producers are benefiting u nfa i rly chinese producers are benefiting unfairly from government subsidies. they must be confirmed first by the international trade commission defour they can be implemented. more bad news for global toy chain toys "r" us, this coming from its uk venture, the retailer faces "r" us, this coming from its uk venture, the retailerfaces a "r" us, this coming from its uk venture, the retailer faces a 20 million —— 20 $1 million tax bill that it cannot pay without selling the business. so far it has dealt to secure a buyer, the toy chain filed for bankruptcy in us in september of last year. 2017 it was a turbulent yearfor last year. 2017 it was a turbulent year for the economy, from a rushed

ban on high—value notes to a rocky roll—out of and —— a nationwide goods and service tax. in the end, how did that impact the numbers? their fourth—quarter gdp will be released later today, and are india is this correspondent reports. all eyes a re is this correspondent reports. all eyes are on the december quarterly numbers, what are you expecting? the indian government is certainly hoping for a good news, that there could be a 7% growth in the quarter, which would indicate that india is on the track to become the fifth largest economy in the world. but experts are appointing cautioned areas to be a wash—out for in the gdp numbers, they will be manufacturing and agriculture. agriculture has seen a dip in recent months, they have not been able to revive the economy after the sudden disruptions that you pointed out, after high current seen being banned and universal tax form policy being

introduced, which hit the core industry quite hard. we‘re looking at some good news in services sector, which could remain up on a growth strike. but more importantly, it is also for a sentimental reason that india would be looking at a 7% growth, because the target is quite ambitious for the indian government. yesterday, the indian finance minister said that india should achieve between 7—7.5% growth, and these numbers would be very crucial. thank you so much for that update. everyone is looking forward to that october— december gdp quarterly numberfrom october— december gdp quarterly number from india. october— december gdp quarterly numberfrom india. in the mobile world, barcelona continues to throw out cool new technology gadgets. our tea m out cool new technology gadgets. our team there has discovered a smart watch that uses the back of its wares hand as a display by squeezing a projector into the device‘s side. let‘s look at the cool gadget. what a cool gadget indeed. before we

90, what a cool gadget indeed. before we go, president donald trump and boeing have reached an informal deal to provide two new air force ones planes for throughput 9 billion us dollars. the white house said trump‘s negotiations over the purchase will see american taxpayers saved more than 1.4 billion dollars us. after winning the election in 2016, trump had planned to cancel the order because the boeing planes we re the order because the boeing planes were too expensive. thank you so much to and vest your time with us, sport today is coming up next. downing street has ruled out any return to a hard border between northern ireland after brexit. they comes northern ireland after brexit. they co m es after northern ireland after brexit. they comes after the leak of a letter from a fork —— foreign secretary, boris johnson‘s

from a fork —— foreign secretary, borisjohnson‘s a or, in which he appears to contemplate the future of this possibility of future customs border check after the uk leads the eu. they‘re the cabinet‘s true believers. does you uk need a fairy godmother? no, senior managers agree that all of written and northern ireland will stick together and when, despite the obstacles and doubts. so today, the international trade secretary said critics were wrong to say britain should stay in a european customs union and give up the freedom to strike independent trade deals, notjust wrong... it would be a complete sell—out of written multinational interests, and a betrayal of the voters in a referendum. but even before that warning, the critics were joined by the former head of dr fox‘s former department and free to speak out, he is not holding back. if we go to brussels and say we want access to the single market, but we want it on our terms,

all of the benefits and we will decide which obligations, no negotiator in the world can bring you that, you would need a fairy godmother. how would the trade secretary deal with that? is the greatest danger is that brexit could lead to national self harm or are there simply not enough true believers like you? we cannot afford to be bound by the practices and the patterns of the past. we have to take the opportunities available unfettered by those who would make the rules on our behalf. what we need is a hard—headed leader, not a fairy godmother. what else could block the brexit plant? dublin wants a written guarantee of no north— south border checks, even if that means a customs union. tonight, downing street has had to restate, there will be no hard border, after borisjohnson seemed to suggest, in a leaked paper, one might return. even though very few checks need to take place. he is now saying no—one wants border checks, but was it even helpful earlier to compare the border to managing

traffic through the congestion charge zone in london? there is no border between camden and westminster, but when i was mayor of london, we visibly took hundreds of millions of pounds from the accounts of people travelling between those two boroughs without any need for border checks, whatsoever... come on, you cannot compare two boroughs of london with the kinds of difference in the arrangements that would be in place between the uk and eu. i think it is a very relevant comparison. either way, the path to brexit is still being mapped out by ministers from theresa may down and it is anything but clear. more news at the time of the hour with mike gently, but now time for the sports news in sport today with tolson telly. this is sport today, live from the bbc sport centre.

coming up on this programme. espanyol score in the last minute of stoppage time to beat real madrid and record a first win over them in 11 years. rafael nadal withdraws from the mexican open in acapulco just hours before he was due to make his return from a hip injur. -- injury. and chris wilkes strikes early, taking two wickets —— quick wickets for england against new zealand in the second one—day international of their series. hello, and welcome to the programme, where we start with football and the news that espanyol have stunned real madrid in spain‘s primera division. gerard moreno‘s winner in the third minute of stoppage time gives his side a first win over real since 2007. gareth bale started up front for real with cristiano ronaldo rested for this match as los blancos had gone six matches unbeaten,